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Have you ever thought about trying meditation, but didn't know how to get started? With Meditation for Beginners, trusted teacher Jack Kornfield shows you how simple it is to start-and stick with-a daily meditation practice.

"Insight" or vipassana meditation is the time-honored skill of calming the spirit and clearing the mind for higher understanding. Now, in this course created especially for beginners, Kornfield offers a straightforward, step-by-step method for bringing meditation into your life.

Using the meditations included in this book, you will discover how easy it is to use your breath, physical sensations-and even difficult emotions-to create tranquility and lovingkindness in your everyday life. These simple, elegant practices are so easy to learn that you will begin enjoying the benefits immediately-while laying the foundation for a lifetime of inner discovery and awakening.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: The Ancient Art of Meditation

Chapter Two: Why Meditate?

Chapter Three: The Benefits of Meditation Practice

Chapter Four: Meditation 1: Connecting with the Breath

Chapter Five: Meditation 2: Working With Sensations in the Body

Chapter Six: Meditation 3: Working With Feelings and Emotion

Chapter Seven: Meditation 4: Witnessing Your Thoughts

Chapter Eight: Meditation 5: Forgiveness Meditation

Chapter Nine: Meditation 6: Loving Kindness Meditation

Chapter Ten: Meditation 7: An Eating Meditation

Chapter Eleven: Meditation 8: A Walking Meditation

Chapter Twelve: Meditation and Social Responsibility

Chapter Thirteen: How to Cultivate a Daily Meditation Practice

Excerpt:

Meditation for Beginners offers the central trainings and teachings found in the best Buddhist monasteries translated for Western society. In Meditation for Beginnings, you will find some of the simplest and most universal of the practices of meditation-in particular, the practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness.

The point of these teachings has nothing to do with becoming a Buddhist, or learning any Eastern ceremonies or rituals or bowing. The point is that you learn how to work with meditation in order to find benefits from it in your life. When we take time to quiet ourselves, we can all sense that our lives could be lived with greater compassion and greater wakefulness. To meditate is to support this inner potential and allow it to come forth into our lives.

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From the Publisher

According to a recent Time magazine cover feature about meditation, ten million American adults say they practice some form of meditation regularly.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I have been a practicing Yogi for many years and have a library full of books, videos, tapes and CD's on Yoga, meditation, sprituality and the like.

This program by Jack Kornfield (available as a video as well as audio) is the best single place I can think of starting from if you want to begin a meditation practice..

Jack Kornfield is a perfect teacher of meditation, especially for Westerners because he approaches it in a non-sectarian way. He gets to the heart of the practice, uses clear explanations and stories to give the listener/viewer some sense of the depth of the practice. He leads the meditations in a way that gives enough guidance without becoming a distraction. He also has a very soothing voice which enhances the overall experience of the program.

The program starts with the most basic form of meditation on the breath, and leads through ever slightly more subtle forms of Vipassana Meditation.

Very Highly Recommended!

Some other related meditation programs I would highly recommend are: Plum Village Meditations w/ Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Jina which are guided Meditations. I have been using this tape for about 7 years daily. I use it during the day prior to lunch to renew myself for the rest of the day.

Stephen Cope's "Yoga For Emotional Flow" which has 2 CD's, the 1st CD is about Yoga Philosophy and the 2nd has guided practices which I find very helpful in my life. Also check out his book "Yoga and The Quest for the True Self" which is contains the ideas of the 1st CD in an in depth manner, one of the best books I've ever read (and I'm re-reading it for the 3rd time).Read more ›

I like this DVD because it's a good introduction for people who have never meditated and for people who might not be the typical audience for such topics.

Jack Kornfield was a monk in Thailand, but is also a Western clinical psychologist. He approaches introducing people to meditation very gently and from a practical standpoint. While it is clear he is committed to a Buddhist path, he presents meditation in an unbiased, impartial and often humorous manner.

While the guided meditations aren't particularly long or deep, they give the listener a good taste of what meditation is about without making it seem esoteric. There are also some very nice stories on the DVD, which is worth getting just for this reason.

Something that distracts from the DVD is the timing and volume of bells sounding. Here and there this is bordering on corny, but I didn't find it a problem in any MAJOR way. It doesn't change the credibility of the core message or value of the instruction.

The biggest strength of this DVD is Jack Kornfield's ability to tell stories and use powerful analogies. For example, he compares "training the attention" to house breaking a puppy! He says, you gently bring the attention back to the breath as you would bring a puppy back to a newspaper and you do this over and over again patiently. You don't kick or beat the puppy and you don't judge yourself for letting your mind wander! I found this to be a very clever and useful analogy.

In my opinion, this is not Jack Kornfield's best work. However, it's a good resource for a lot of people. My favorite Jack Kornfield book is "A Path with Heart" and my favorite recorded material is your "Buddha Nature.Read more ›

"The first session of meditation practice is a beginning like the beginning of any art form. Like any other art form, the art of meditation takes some time to practice." ~ Jack Kornfield

Meditation for Beginners truly is perfect for anyone who is just starting to meditate because it includes a Guided Meditation CD. The book introduces you to why meditation is a good idea, how to connect with the breath and how to cultivate a daily meditation practice.

The CD has sections for connecting with your breath, working with sensations that arise in the body, dealing with feelings and emotions, and observing your thoughts. The last two sections include a Forgiveness (7:13) and Lovingkindness (10:50) Meditation.

Jack Kornfield studied in monasteries in Thailand and trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and India.

As I listened to Jack Kornfield's beautiful voice, I was able to relax more fully and fall into the meditation in the moments of silence. You may lose track of time and just enjoy having Jack guide you through the various meditation practices.

Sometimes it is relaxing to release all your awareness of the moment-to-moment stresses of life and to truly find that place of peace where your body can heal. By listening to a guided meditation session you surrender into the moment and can feel a sense of joy rising from within where true happiness is born.

I remember the first time I tried to meditate and how restless I felt. Now years later, meditation is something I can appreciate for its intrinsic beauty and revelatory nature. If you find you are feeling especially restless, try exercising before meditating or doing a yoga routine right before the guided sessions.

More About the Author

Jack Kornfield, Ph.D. co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1975 and later, the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. His books include After the Ecstasy, the Laundry and the national bestseller A Path with Heart (over 100,000 copies in print).